[scaredyclassic]

http://www.npr.org/2012/05/08/151970188/long-term-care-insurance-who-needs-it

arrggh. maybe longterm care insurance is a ripoff. best to just enoy whatever milestones we can and hope for the best … the only security is in the grave…

[scaredyclassic]

if I had a million in a 401k, id assume it would be half a million in 6 months. then id halve that aagin just to be safe. its hard to relax when you keep looking at the steep downside.

now i feel bad for derailing teh thread. its supposed to be milestones that feel good…

sorry about that.

i did feel good when we bought our house.

i do feel good paying my kids tuition out of pocket.

i feel good being able to pick upa check and it not mattering to me at all financially…

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=svelte][quote=scaredyclassic][quote=svelte]I think two things ought to happen soon:
(1) All officers required to wear body cameras
(2) There need to be national stats generated on police shootings – who, what, where,when. As I understand it, they are not generated now. Makes me wonder why not? Stats are generated on everything else…

Obviously this was an unjustified shooting, no doubt about it.

But call me crazy…if I don’t resist or run from the police, I think my chances of getting shot go waaaaay down. Dunno, just a hunch.[/quote]

yeah. True. I advise you to submit.

if you freak out or resist or run you may be summarily executed.

As long as you obey we may allow you to live.[/quote]

Damn straight. In the heat of the moment all sorts of bad things happen. Right or wrong.

If I want to avoid an accidental or intentional shooting, I should stand right there and wait for my day in court.

By the way, isn’t this the guy who was delinquent on his child support payments but the police pulled him over driving his Mercedes with custom rims and tires? I have no sympathy for anyone who shirks their kids. None.[/quote]

he was pulled over for a third brake light out, which under that state’s law, wasnt actually a law violation. cop pulled him over cause it was a black dude ina nice car.

even if you dont like guys not paying child support, we hould not be happy when they are shot dead cold in the street.

most countries dont even putyou in jail. deadbeat dad sounds good, but the system can be pretty harsh on a low earning dude…

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/04/16/3647872/walter-scott-child-support/

[scaredyclassic]

a million cash probably wouldnt feel all that secure. one good nursing home bill will probably clean you out. i guess you can get long term care insurance.

real financial security requires ability to put a bullet in ones head at the appropriate time on the downhill slide, assuming networth less than say 3 million or with adequate insurance.

Im pretty sure I could feel inssecurewith just 1 or 2 million in the bank. I think id probably worry a little less about money over 3.5 million. but then again, given my worrying tendencies that number would probably seem small once i got there. there is no number at which i can rest.

incidentally did you see this research asking the question, do smart people worry more?

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2015/04/do_smart_people_worry_more_iq_is_correlated_with_anxiety.html

[scaredyclassic]

Can we count the figures to the right of the decimal point?

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=deadzone][quote=Gata]I’ve been following Pigginton’s blogs for some time — very informative and smart comments. I thought I would make my first comment on this topic, as we have basically re-designed our life around the outrageously high tuition costs in the US. For anyone who hasn’t, I highly recommend watching Ivory Tower, the CNN documentary about Ivy League v other schools – it basically supports the argument that Ivy League schools are overpriced, and I agree. I attended a top-tier law school and graduated with honors, finished my LLM with the highest GPA (for which I received an award), all debt free. Now we are focusing on UT Austin for our daughter, who has expressed an interest in pursuing an engineering degree. We’ve given up on UC, due to budget costs and the seemingly prevailing policy of accepting more out-of-staters who bring the bigger $$. UT Austin ranks 8th for engineering (not as high as UCB, but realistically I don’t think our daughter would get in with an 8% acceptance rate mostly met by out-of-staters or foreigners); it’s considered a “public ivy”, and tuition is only $10k/ year for engineering. We sold our San Diego home last year for asking price and bought a house in Austin to qualify for in-state tuition, where she/we will live during her college years. We managed to find a loophole to get an ag exemption on property taxes, which be in effect in 5 years, basically our current property taxes will finance her tuition. Assuming she gets accepted, her degree will be high quality, she will be debt free, and we can pass on real estate to her, which will provide a starting point for her life. And if she doesn’t get accepted into UT Austin, we could sell the house at a profit (it’s paid off) and pay her tuition wherever she ends up (including an ivy school if that was her choice). And my husband and I will retire in our home in HI knowing that our daughter will be financially stable and debt-free, which, to us, is more important than an Ivy League degree, but which doesn’t necessarily result from it. Most importantly, all this moving around was our daughter’s decision – she prefers HI and Austin over SD. Go figure…[/quote]

Sounds borderline nuts to me. UT is a fine school, but moving to a random place just to save on in-state tuition? Really? There are plenty of fine public engineering schools in California outside of Berkley. If the attitude is “Berkely or nothing” then that is no different than the Ivy elitist attitude. Trust me, for an undergrad engineering degree, it doesn’t make a huge difference in the long run from career standpoint if you went to Cal vs most any other UC school. The curriculum is the same.[/quote]

nuts is a little strong. Maybe not worth all that effort for the savings involved…but…maybe….if she were earning big money as a lawyer probably wouldn’t be as flexible or worried about savings…

I like the idea of just sending a kid to another state to live for a year…get a job.

[scaredyclassic]

Took us a reallllly long time to claw up to zero networth. I was happy when we were just at zero. I was out of law school at least a decade before we made it to 0.

That’s why I’m student loan averse.

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=svelte]I think two things ought to happen soon:
(1) All officers required to wear body cameras
(2) There need to be national stats generated on police shootings – who, what, where,when. As I understand it, they are not generated now. Makes me wonder why not? Stats are generated on everything else…

Obviously this was an unjustified shooting, no doubt about it.

But call me crazy…if I don’t resist or run from the police, I think my chances of getting shot go waaaaay down. Dunno, just a hunch.[/quote]

yeah. True. I advise you to submit.

if you freak out or resist or run you may be summarily executed.

As long as you obey we may allow you to live.

[scaredyclassic]

but here’s a contrarian plan.

JUST BORROW BOATLOADS OF MONEY.

in fact, try to maximize debt. assuming you and your family dont have much in the way of assets, it might not be irrational. With law school or med school, you might very well be able to climb up t the 400 or 500k in debt range.

then just put it all on IBR

(income based repayment).

basically, at huge debt levels, the gov. doesnt want you to defailt. there are all sorts of plans to stop defaulting, including IBR PAYE and public service forgivenemess.

IBR is based on income, its almost like a tax…but it takes the risk of the debt away from you, because your payment is only based on what you can pay.

of course, this is a giant governmental scam that only serves to prop up absurd tuition prices.
when the debt level gets high enough its the banks problems, not yours.

the main obstacle to this plan would be in not fretting over the debt, or, in the parlance of young debtors over at http://www.jdunderground.com , to “stop giving any fucks”.

its a daring, bold strategy, no t one i personally would have the cojones to engage in…

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=Gata]I’ve been following Pigginton’s blogs for some time — very informative and smart comments. I thought I would make my first comment on this topic, as we have basically re-designed our life around the outrageously high tuition costs in the US. For anyone who hasn’t, I highly recommend watching Ivory Tower, the CNN documentary about Ivy League v other schools – it basically supports the argument that Ivy League schools are overpriced, and I agree. I attended a top-tier law school and graduated with honors, finished my LLM with the highest GPA (for which I received an award), all debt free. Now we are focusing on UT Austin for our daughter, who has expressed an interest in pursuing an engineering degree. We’ve given up on UC, due to budget costs and the seemingly prevailing policy of accepting more out-of-staters who bring the bigger $$. UT Austin ranks 8th for engineering (not as high as UCB, but realistically I don’t think our daughter would get in with an 8% acceptance rate mostly met by out-of-staters or foreigners); it’s considered a “public ivy”, and tuition is only $10k/ year for engineering. We sold our San Diego home last year for asking price and bought a house in Austin to qualify for in-state tuition, where she/we will live during her college years. We managed to find a loophole to get an ag exemption on property taxes, which be in effect in 5 years, basically our current property taxes will finance her tuition. Assuming she gets accepted, her degree will be high quality, she will be debt free, and we can pass on real estate to her, which will provide a starting point for her life. And if she doesn’t get accepted into UT Austin, we could sell the house at a profit (it’s paid off) and pay her tuition wherever she ends up (including an ivy school if that was her choice). And my husband and I will retire in our home in HI knowing that our daughter will be financially stable and debt-free, which, to us, is more important than an Ivy League degree, but which doesn’t necessarily result from it. Most importantly, all this moving around was our daughter’s decision – she prefers HI and Austin over SD. Go figure…[/quote]

not irrational, though very flexible and difficult to maneuver. I can barely get everyone to decide where we are going to eat out.

overall family financial health is a lot more sane than extreme sacrificing for no clear goal.

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=AN][quote=flu]Ok, that’s an interesting point then….

I guess the bigger question is, if cost wasn’t an issue, and your kid did get into Stanford or an Ivy League school and get into say SDSU or UCSD, would you still encourage your kid to go to SDSU or UCSD or would you encourage your kid to Stanford or an Ivy League school?

For me, if cost and my kid’s ability wasn’t an issue, it would be a no brainer, I’d encourage the former.[/quote]I say, what ever would make them happy. They’re old enough to make their decisions and they’ll will have to live with that decision. They can only blame themselves in the future. I will give them all the pros and cons that I know for all the options. I can show them the door but they have to walk through it. We just have different style of parenting. No right or wrong. I don’t have a crystal ball so I can’t be sure which would be better. Especially since I believe the students make the school and not the other way around.

I didn’t apply to any of the Ivy because I HATE living in cold area with snow. I would be miserable there and I know it. I did apply up and down the CA coast though. My parents forced me to go to the better school and I hated them for awhile for doing that.[/quote]

there’s something to be said for being a smarter fish in a less prestigious pond. From where I sit today I’d encourage my kid to go to sdsu even if the price were the same as harvard. I don’t think it’s a no brainer.

I’d rather see him excel than be midpack.

[scaredyclassic]

we are all in the rat race, some in the more prestigious maze.

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=deadzone][quote=FlyerInHi]

Not only can you brag about it, but an elite education is simply better.

[/quote]

That is something ingrained in your head. But did you actually attend both Ivy and public schools? How do you know which is better? How do you measure this? You are simply pulling this out of your ass.

Yes bragging about your kids is douchy and yes there are a lot of d-bag parents. Fact is nobody gives a shit about your kids, nor are they impressed in the least if your kids go to Ivy league school or not. Also be aware that nobody wants to hear your kids play piano either.[/quote]

the way schools are ranked in USnews and world report, at least in law schols, is kind of insane. it has nothing to do with how good a teacher the teacher is, or their experience. professor status is based almost entirely on publications, articles on obscure topics in student run law review publications that virtually no one reads or cares about….but which are limited in space and therefore extremely competitive to get published in…

and so profs spend all theri time getting published, because there is no career upside to actually teaching anything or giving a crap about students…unless they just happen t like teaching…for fun…like a hobby..

it is pure status. the curriculum is often very similar…the competition is fiercer…but…its primarily a status game…its better because…we say its better…

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=bearishgurl]I think the CSU is now much improved from the past 20 years or so. Yes, all campuses. They have stepped up their admission standards, their classes are challenging (even GE’s), the vast majority of their instructors are good to excellent and CA companies are hiring from their business graduates (as well as those CSU graduates from engineering, hospitality and many other fields). The CSU is still relatively affordable and can be even downright economical if your kid attends campus near “home” or in a lower-cost region of the state. I don’t recall if my kid(s) actually ever competed with “ivy-leaguers” for jobs and it doesn’t really matter.

As to AN’s explanation of his “tradeoffs,” his kid(s) are still young yet. I have told mine NOT to come back to SD County in search of jobs (they’re doing fine in higher-paying counties). It’s not about visiting me often. It’s about them making something of themselves in their fields in a city/county where that is actually possible (not here). Also, I want them to make a living wage (not possible here, especially in the years immediately post-graduation). AN may change his tune when his kids leave for college in effort to eventually become financially self-sufficient. I can’t speak for them but at that point, they may not want or need to see their parents or grandparents daily or weekly.

As to flyer’s kids …. sure it would improve anyone on this board’s (retirement) “bottom line” exponentially if their kids had access to an (unlimited?) college trust fund as flyer states here that his deep-pocketed parents and/or in-laws provided for his kids. For that, he is very fortunate in that he and his spouse did not have to use any of their own funds (or very little of them) to get their multiple (3-4?) children all the way through to graduation (and post-grad work?) in expensive private colleges. Of course, he often wonders how others will fare in retirement but he himself has been given a huge leg up … a gift in this regard in the form of family help for his kids’ college educations irrespective of any pensions or retirement preparations he himself has earned/made on his own behalf over his lifetime.

There’s nothing wrong with any of this, folks. I’m just pointing out that there are many “flyers” out there whose family legacies pave the way for their goals in life as opposed to the other 97% of the population who don’t have the same advantages. For this, I’m certain flyer is very grateful.

I agree with scaredy in that “trust fund kids” have much more choice in colleges that they can apply to AND realistically expect to attend (should they be accepted) than does everyone else’s kids.[/quote]

i would want my kids to go wherever the best oppty was…but…i hope they continue to text me a lot. something about getting texted frequently makes you feel super connected.

[scaredyclassic]

basically it’s laid out here:

“A father’s responsibilities to his son are outlined in the Talmud, Kiddushin 29a. According to the text, a father is obligated to circumcise his son, to redeem him if he is the firstborn, to teach him Torah, to find him a wife, and to teach him a trade. Talmudic scholars added that a father must also teach his son to swim.”

Basically all i got done was all of them are strong swimmers, but especially the oldest. the rest is on them…though i’ll do whatt i can…within limits…

but all this anxiety about status and schools and money…its kind of focussing on the “teach him a trade” clause..except it’s not teaching hima trade…more emphasis needed on torah, swimming. finding a good wife…also, honoring thy father. that s just so important….dont want the poor little tyke to feelguilty later on for insufficnetly honoring me…

i feel bad for what a little shit i was…

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